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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208075">KING OF A BARREN WORLD</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkipBack/pseuds/SkipBack'>SkipBack</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zimvoid King AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Invader Zim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Wow, Zimvoid, feral roach boy, feral roach child, i blame shandzii for me finding out about this guy, i've only known this roach child was canon for three days now and i'm already writing about him, new record dog, please help zib, read to figure out how he's here, ugly roach child needs a therapist, zib has e m o t i o n s, zim's also here somehow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:53:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,898</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24208075</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkipBack/pseuds/SkipBack</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When you at first had it all, and now you have absolutely nothing... sometimes, it's hard not to feel a little lonely. But when your life stuck in the void of your own creation changes one day... it's hard to tell if it's for the best, or for the worst.</p><p> </p><p>  <em>Based off a "what if" scenario I came up with instead of sleeping.</em></p><p>EDIT: now comes with a piece of art i made for the story-</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Zimvoid King AU [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>KING OF A BARREN WORLD</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Trapped. 

</p><p>Stranded. 

</p><p><em>Alone.</em>

</p><p>So that was life now, he supposed. Just trapped in your timeline, all by yourself, with no one to talk to... because you're all that's left... because there was literally no one else in the universe except you... what a miserable way to end up, huh?

</p><p>It was painful, really. He wasn't sure why he kept thinking about it. Why he kept <em>reminding</em> himself about it. When he realized no one was coming back to his timeline, the first thing he did was throw himself off the top of his castle. A little harsh, yes, but he thought that maybe, just maybe, it would put an end to the sudden sorrow and crippling loneliness that came collasping in on him from all sides. He'd thought that it'd be for the best... with no Zims, or the only other Dib who had foolishly managed to find his way here... well, it would be better dead than with no one to talk to or no entertainment, wouldn't it?

</p><p>What he'd thought (hoped) would happen was that the impact would instantly kill him, and he'd never feel anything ever again. Maybe a short burst of pure, indescrible agony as his useless body collided with the rocky ground before it all faded into blissful, peaceful, total darkness. Maybe he'd just think he was darkness, or forget what he'd done to his timeline.

</p><p>Instead, what had happened was that when he landed, he landed on his face, thus breaking most of the bones in his face and the rest of his glasses, causing him to take the most logical course of action: lay perfectly still as a groaning mess of flesh, bones and pain.

</p><p>He wasn't sure how long he waited. It felt like eternity, waiting for his face to mend, left to nothing but his own thoughts. He at first tried counting the minutes, but he soon lost count at around five hundred, when time eventually felt like it was all melting into one impossible blur. He forced himself to stay there, in that postion, waiting until he was sure that not even a semblance of pain remained when he spoke.

</p><p>Not that he actually had a reason to talk. Sure, he could go back to talking to himself, way back when he was just what he said to the stupid little robot that came to his timeline: just a regular old Dib. He wasn't so regular now, was he? He was just some... some... <em>Zib</em>.

</p><p>He hadn't really liked the name at first; "Zib" just sounded like some weird power-couple name between Dib and Zim. Heck, he might as well be called "Dim", if they were getting formal. But there was no way he was going to be called <em>Dim</em>, and referring to himself as Number 1 was getting a little tedious as of late... so Zib would have to do. But he swore to God, if anyone called him <em>Zibbers</em>, he was going to lose his fricken <em>mind</em>.

</p><p>But, of course, there was no one around to call him that anyway. This was just one of many lines of stupid thought to keep his decaying mind occupied, some about how he wished he hadn't accidentally destroyed his reality (totally worth it until he lost all his work and inventions), others about how he could get some decent grub because, as it would turn out, being fused with his Zim's PAK meant though he didn't need anything to consume anything to survive, it didn't mean he couldn't get <em>reeeeaaaaaaaaallyyyyyyy</em> hungry at times. Which sucked, because he actually started yelling at his stomach the second his jaw healed up. Didn't do him no good, seeing as stomach insisted on being annoying even after yelling until his throat burned raw. Hey, but at least he never followed through with his plans of punching himself in the gut, right? Now <em>that</em>... that would be stupid. Yeah... <em>yeah</em>...

</p><p>So Zib was having the absolute time of his life. Now, he often had hysterical episodes where he desperately tried to convince himself he wasn't going crazy, started eating dirt (yeah, he was resorting to eating dirt to fill his stomach now, what more do you want?), and even started pretending he was two different people to pretend that he totally wasn't lonely. There was this one time where he was pretending to be his own therapist... the conversation somehow ended up being about how he was eating dirt and how it was supposedly bad for him, landing him to come to the conclusion that yes — he <em>toooootally</em> was lonely! And maybe crazy! With that conclusion, he curled up in a ball and pretended he was a corpse.

</p><p>Zib's routine finally changed one day. And it started by him waking up with a horrble stomachache because, bug child or not, his stomach really wasn't built for his terrible new diet.

</p><p>Pretty fun to wake up with what felt like his stomach cavity was being cut open and torn a part. <em>Not.</em> 

</p><p>Zib laid on his side, moaning and serevely regretting even considering eating literal dirt was a good idea. Sure, it didn't taste good, but all he'd needed was for his stomach to stop making noise... of course, now it was complaining fairly loudly. Which got him to thinking... maybe he was the worst Dib. After all, fusing with his nemesis' PAK and then eating <em>dirt</em>... well, it was certainly stupider than accidentally eating styrofoam packing peanuts. Maybe because he was purposely doing it. He couldn't be too certain.

</p><p><em>"...wow. You stupid worm."</em>

</p><p>Zib didn't really hear the voice at first. It was there, but he was so deep in his own self-pity and agony that he didn't really notice it. But it was fine...

</p><p><em>"Helllllloooooo? Are you listening to me? HEY! HEY! HEY! STINKBEAST!"</em>

</p><p>...right up until it started <em>yelling</em>. It bounced off the walls of his skull, rattling his teeth. It didn't help him much. All it did was give him a headache to add to his pain, and get sick all over the place, until there was barely anything left in his stomach and he was heaving.

</p><p><em>"EUUUUGH! Oh, that's DISGUSTING! Absolute GROSS! Revolting human worm! Why did I feel that? Hold on..."</em>

</p><p>Zib forced himself into a sitting position, hunched over and drooling, his head going light and his thoughts swimming. He felt a little better, but not by much. Mainly because there was still an annoying voice yelling in his head.

</p><p><em>"RRRRGH why aren't you saying anything?! DO NOT IGNORE ZIM, YOU PATHETIC MEAT BOY!"</em>

</p><p>Zib suddenly bolted upright at the name, wincing as the sick feeling intensified. "Z-Zim?"

</p><p><em>"A-HA! So you CAN hear me!"</em> It was unmistakingly a Zim's voice... was there still one left somehow? And where? The voice was close, but he couldn't see where it was coming from. <em>"Now what HAPPENED? All I remember is your filthy, smug face! Then blackness! And now I'm here! Where is here?"</em>

</p><p>"I..." Zib cut himself off. There was no Zim anywhere, from what he could see. So where was his voice coming from?

</p><p><em>"Eh? It can do that?"</em>

</p><p>"What can do huh?"

</p><p><em>"Your mouth stopped making noises. That's not supposed to be possible."</em>

</p><p>Zib scoffed. "<em>None</em> of this should be possible," he said. "I destroyed an entire reality... I probably might have been about to destroy countless others, who's to say it wouldn't not happen? And now, to top it all off, there's still someone else here, I don't even know where they are!"

</p><p><em>"I'm right here... wherever here actually is. Wait... what about destroying a reality? Dib, what on Irk did you do?"</em>

</p><p>"I didn't doooooooooo anythiiiiing," Zib said, throwing his hands up over his head. "Well, I maaaaaaay have accidentally overloaded the Armada's generators that created I don't know, say... an energy wave that literally accidentally destroyed the entirety of this reality?"

</p><p><em>"You WHAT?"</em> the disembodied Zim voice roared. 

</p><p>"It's FINE," Zib said dismissively. "Well, it's not fine. But that's also fine! Totally fine, because see? You're here! Somewhere!"

</p><p><em>"Again, still right here."</em>

</p><p>"WHERE here?" 

</p><p><em>"You tell me!"</em>

</p><p>"I still don't know where <em>you</em> are!"

</p><p><em>"LIAR! YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!"</em>

</p><p>"OH, I do, do I? Hate to break it to you, but I <em>don't</em> kno—" Zib cut himself off as some form of realization came crashing down over him. "Oh God please no."

</p><p><em>"Eh?"</em>

</p><p>"Nononononono... ah, I should have seen this coming. Zim... tell me... what's it like where you are?"

</p><p><em>"Dark? But also... not dark? I know where you are, but at the same time... what are you getting at, you smelly human?"</em>

</p><p>"Would you hate me even more than you already do if I told you that your PAK is fused to the back of my head? And by some weird miracle, you're still alive in there?"

</p><p><em>"...WHAT."</em>

</p><p>"Surprise! We're together forever now!" Zib said. In a suffering voice, he added: "Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy...."

</p><p><strong><em>"WHAT."</em></strong>

</p><p>"I actually don't know! It kinda just happened!"

</p><p><em>"How are you even still alive?! A PAK is compatible with Irkens... ONLY with Irkens. It would have killed you in ten minutes... HOW did you destroy an entire reality in TEN MINUTES?! How much time is left before you die? Five? Three?"</em>

</p><p>"Uhhhhhhh... no time," Zib said. "None. It's been... three months? Five? A year or maybe three? I lost track of time."

</p><p><em>"HOW DID YOU LOSE TRACK OF TIME?!"</em>

</p><p>"Well, if you haven't noticed, there's no day-night cycle anymore! Also my watch stopped working when reality was destroyed. Or did I destroy time too?" He shrugged.

</p><p><em>"HOW do you even destroy a REALITY?!"</em>

</p><p>"ACCIDENTALLY, apparently!"

</p><p><em>"And somehow YOU weren't destroyed as well?"</em>

</p><p>"God won't let me die! Wait... I think I might have killed God. Huh. Does that mean <em>I'm</em> God now?"

</p><p><em>"You are such an idiot."</em>

</p><p>"Shut up, you're a PAK."

</p><p>Four metallic legs shot out from the PAK on the back of Zib's head. <em>"You bet your ugly face I am!"</em>

</p><p>"YOU don't even HAVE a FACE," Zib shouted. "The ONLY FACE around here is MINE. So therefore, it's also the prettiest face!"

</p><p><em>"I would have to disagree,"</em> Zim said. <em>"It looks like you have an ugly little bump sticking out of your face. You humans call that a nose."</em>

</p><p>"JOKES ON YOU, I don't HAVE a nose anymore!" He threw his arms out dramatically. "Or ears! I look like an ugly roach man! Kid. Thing? I'm a feral roach, basically."

</p><p><em>"The egg is on your face because that means your face looks worse than ugly. It's MEGA UGLY. And now there's an egg on it, so it's SUPER ULTRA UGLY."</em>

</p><p>"YOU'RE STILL A PAK."

</p><p><em>"YOU'RE A COCKROACH. A DISGUSTING, REVOLTING, UGLY COCKROACH."</em>

</p><p>Zib pulled his hands down his face, pulling down the skin of his lower eyelids. "Unnnnnnggggggghhhhhhh, I just realized I might have to spend eternity with youuuuuuuuu.... I wish I died when I threw myself off my castle..."

</p><p><em>"YOU have a CASTLE?"</em>

</p><p>"HAD a castle. I mean, I guess I still do? It's just a shell, really. I don't think there's nothing really left inside of it. Horrible, nasty shell of... <em>nasty</em>."

</p><p><em>"So... it's you, but as a castle. I gotcha."</em> Zib had the mental image of Zim tapping his own forehead with a smug grin.

</p><p>"Screw you, Zim."

</p><p><em>"Up yours, stinkbug."</em>

</p><p>"No, you."

</p><p>A wicked grin crossed Zib's features when he heard angry sounds, as though he'd just broken some part of the PAK's mind. <em>"YOU'RE A COCKROACH."</em>

</p><p>"Wow, using the same insult twice. How clever."

</p><p><em>"You hypocrite."</em>

</p><p>"I said you're <em>still</em> a PAK," Zib told Zim. "I didn't say the exact same thing."

</p><p><em>"Still counts!"</em>

</p><p>"Does not."

</p><p><em>"Does too, you roach-worm-baby!"</em>

</p><p>"Oh God, I think I'm having flashbacks to puppy-monkey-baby for some reason.... oh God, now I'm thinking about it... I hate you so much."

</p><p><em>"I don't even want to know."</em>

</p><p>"It's just this thing... with the head of a pug, the torso of a monkey... and then the legs of a baby. Can't remember if it has a tail or not." 

</p><p><em>"That sounds disgusting. Also I sAID I DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW."</em>

</p><p>"Why do you think I told you anyway?"

</p><p><em>"You insufferable cockroach."</em>

</p><p>"Haha, I— OW!" Zim had taken one of his PAK legs and had jabbed it into Zib's shoulder. "SERIOUSLY? You're attacking me now?"

</p><p><em>"Shut your stupid, ugly trash mouth, Dib."</em> Zim somehow managed to twist the point of his metallic leg, sinking it deeper into Zib's shoulder, causing him to wince. <em>"You DESTROYED our reality. I'M A PAK FUSED TO THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD. AND NOW YOU'RE INSULTING ME?!</em>"

</p><p>"But you're... I didn't..." He trailed off. The loneliness and sorrow that had been crushing him for a long time had been relatively lifted when he was talking to Zim, but now it came back at full force.

</p><p>The point of the leg dug even deeper into his shoulder, and he cried out. <em>"What do you have to say for yourself, smelly? Or would you prefer I keep sinking my leg into your shoulder until I take your arm clean off?"</em> 

</p><p>"I..." 

</p><p><em>"I what?"</em> Zim echoed. <em>"I am an idiot? I am a destroyer of worlds? I look like a bug had a baby with a turd?"</em> The PAK's voice steadily raised until he was shouting, the volume of it so loud it felt as though it was splitting Zib's head in two, reddish-pink blood spurting out of his nonexistent nose. <em>"I what, Dib? I WHAT?!"</em>

</p><p>"I'm sorry."

</p><p><em>"You..."</em> He could almost feel Zim faltering at the devastated tone in his voice.

</p><p>"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." He choked on a sob. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He couldn't handle holding it in anymore so he finally burst into tears, allowing himself to cry for the first time since being stranded in his timeline, rocking himself back and forth. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, s-sorry..."

</p><p>Zim pulled his metallic leg out of Zib's shoulder, and he felt all four of them retract into the PAK. Zim continued to say nothing.

</p><p>Zib's shoulders shook, and he wrapped his arms around himself, barely noting the warm blood soaking into his shirt and trench coat. "This really <em>is</em> all my fault," he said. "Oh man, why did I have to overreact? I didn't have to fuse with a PAK... I didn't have to take over the world... I didn't have to build a weapon to destroy the entire Irken Armada and beyond." He wiped the blood on his face on his sleep, choking on another sob. "Now... everyone's gone. Dad... Gaz..... Zim.... <em>I'm so s-sorry...</em>"

</p><p>Something came out of the PAK on the back of his head. For whatever reason, he thought it would be one of Zim's metallic legs again, ready to take the rest of his arm off... but instead it was just a small little arm, gently passing him a tissue.

</p><p>He didn't question it. He especially didn't question it when he held it up to where his nose should be, and he blew one heck of a load of snot into it (there was also some blood when he checked; oh well, what harm could a little blood loss do?). There was a long, disgusting stream of snot from his "nose" to the tissue, and he barely noted the length of it when it broke, dripping onto his lap. He snorted the remainder of it back up.

</p><p><em>"...ew?"</em> Zim cautiously offered.

</p><p>"Yeah," Zib agreed, subdued. "Ew."

</p><p><em>"So... eternity, huh?"</em>

</p><p>"I'm probably live until what's left of this place implodes on itself. With my luck, it'll be in... I dunno, say... never?" 

</p><p><em>"Or until you starve."</em>

</p><p>"I tried. It only lasted until I started trying to eat dirt."

</p><p><em>"But why?"</em>

</p><p>"I could only handle the sound of my own stomach for so long, Zim. The only side effect is that stomachs aren't built for that kind of food."

</p><p><em>"That's not a - dirt isn't food, Dib."</em>

</p><p>"Ate it anyway."

</p><p><em>"By Irk..."</em>

</p><p>"Come to think of it, I haven't been back inside my castle since..." He awkwardly coughed. "You don't want to know. Can't even bring myself to check if there's till food in there, or if it's all gone. There's just too many weird feelings in there."

</p><p><em>"Weird roach child feelings?"</em>

</p><p>"Yeah... weird roach child feelings."

</p><p><em>"Just too angsty to think about it. Ugh."</em>

</p><p>"Just the worst. Ew, man. It's like... ow."

</p><p><em>"Like, if you cry hard enough, maybe you'll forget."</em>

</p><p>"But no, it just kinda sticks with you. Kinda like a piece of gum stuck to your shoe and no matter what you do, it just won't come off."

</p><p><em>"Major ew."</em>

</p><p>"Massive ew, Zim. Massive ew."

</p><p><em>"Whatever you say, Dib. Whatever you say."</em>

</p><p>As it turned out, Zib was actually having a lot of fun talking with Zim. The both of them came to terms pretty quickly that, with everything except for themselves being destroyed, there was no way they'd be able to continue their usual spats... well, they turned into the weirdest set of friends imaginable. Sure, Zim eventually realized they had to do something about that shoulder wound of Zib's. The best they could come up with was tearing off Zib's other sleeve and trying to tie it around the wound... it might have taken a while, but hey. 

</p><p>A bug boy and a sentient PAK. You couldn't get a friendship weirder than that.</p><p>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I had a lot of fun writing <em>King of a Barren World</em>. It was just a matter of time before something like this came into fruition. Zib was a remarkable pleasure to write, and "PAK Zim" gets an A+ for tolerating the roach child enough not to insult him for being so gross and obnoxious with blowing his "nose". I hope people shuddered when they read that because I cackled when I came up with that part, and had a wicked grin writing it in.</p><p> </p><p>I'm going to spew a bunch of headcanon facts on you because headcanons. Can't argue with that logic, I guess.</p><p> </p><p>-Zib and PAK!Zim's thoughts occasionally sync. This causes the pair to use "we" and "us" terms more and more often. An interaction with them would go something like this:</p><p> </p><p>   ZIB: We'd love to!</p><p> </p><p>   DIB: We?</p><p> </p><p>   ZIB: <em>aw shit</em></p><p> </p><p>   P!ZIM: <em>nice going genius</em></p><p> </p><p>-They don't necessarily get along a lot. They are still a Dib and Zim duo, after all. However, any time their spats end with PAK!Zim trying to give Zib the silent treatment, they end up having to reconcile because Zib always ends up bursting into tears after five minutes. Lonely trash child needs attention.</p><p> </p><p>-PAK!Zim still occasionally threatens Zib that he may dig one of his PAK legs into the roach child's shoulders again. He feels too weirdly guilty about doing it the first time, so he'll never actually do it... but Zib doesn't know that.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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